What I'm Reading 12/20
Life's been crazy, but I still find time to keep up with my voracious reading across many domains from business to politics. Somehow, this is soothing.
Frontmatter: Life has been bonkers lately with work, so my posting has been curtailed. It is not because I can't find outrageous shit to post about, it is mainly because I am running myself ragged.
But, yesterday I began two weeks off for the holiday shutdown (technically the shutdown begins on Thursday, A.K.A. Christmas day, but miraculously all my meetings this coming week evaporated, presumably shifted until after January 6.
WOO HOO!
Anyhow, here are a few odds and ends. Things I am reading, things that are making me think.
Product Management Front (how I pay my bills)
I did write one thing on my product management newsletter. In brief, we are at an inflection point where our business model is being inverted, and that will mean some structural go-to-market changes are needed. In a prior life, this would lead to months of senior leaders arguing amongst themselves, and then they would punt to a consultant (McKinsey anyone?) and it would be a ginormous mess.
I decided to ask ChatGPT for ideas, and frankly, it put together a solid six page or so analysis with solid recommendations and even some recommendations on how to gauge success. This is something that a lot of people go to b-school for, take 2 years out of their life, drop $100K plus for, and then they still punt it to a McKinsey engagement.
Geoffrey Anderson
Reading:
If you aren't following and reading Cryn Johannsen, you should. This week she posted a book review for Hayek's Bastards that inspired me to pick up the book, and I am through the introduction and the first two chapters, and holy fuckballs, this shit is enraging. Read her, and consider picking up a copy. It start off with the known Fucker Charles Murray, he of the quest to tie intelligence and civilization to racial genetics all in an effort to justify his white christian supremecy views.
Cryn Johannsen
We were supposed to get the Epstein files, minimally redacted, yesterday, and alas, the DoJ is doing its best to increase the consumption of laser printer toner cartridges with all the black of the redactions.
Sigh, but this was what everyone expected.
That's OK, because the NY Times did a journalism, and investigated a lot of the arc of how J-Epp went from being a pervy private high school maths teacher to being the definition of a corrupted ecosystem of underage women trafficked for his icky inner circle.
I am not through it, but goddamn, it is a solid read.
The Bulwark's JVL turned me on to a treatise (Substack newsletter) on how Conservatism has morphed into MAGA, and how it is not just screeching howler monkeys.
It is a solidly researched piece from a societal, developmental, and how Republicans and conservatives are conditioned to be more open to authoritarianism.
If you are like me, when you read this, you will think two things:
- This makes total sense, and now you understand how we went from Ike to Reagan, to Gingrich, to Trump, and
- Holy shit, this isn't going to get better anytime soon. Trump's demise or exiting the scene isn't gonna unfuck us.
Anyhow, read and enjoy:
The Rational League
I have long thought that at least from the start of the New Deal era the "Capital" class has been harboring this, and have been building to this, influencing tranches of the populace to get here.
I hate to be depressing, but this shit isn't a transient signal, it is the carrier wave of the American psyche, and it is infecting other countries as well.
HCR's Letters from an American is something that I read daily. I know some people question her motives, but she writes clear-eyed takes most days, with her sources.
Today's missive has a nugget that is worth pulling out.
Heather Cox Richardson
From the above:
In the 1980s, Republicans told Americans that the modern government that had regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, protected civil rights, and stabilized the international order since World War II was “socialism.” Undeserving Americans like President Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queens,” who were coded to be Black Americans from inner cities, or talk radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh’s “feminazis”—women who demanded equal rights—were cheating the system to take tax money from hardworking white taxpayers.
Cutting business regulations and taxes would usher in extraordinary economic growth that would boost the prosperity of hardworking Americans, they insisted, leaving behind those unwilling to work.
Except it didn’t. A February 2025 report from RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, written by Carter C. Price found that if the system in place before 1975 had stayed in place, the bottom 90% of Americans would have had almost $80 trillion more in 2023 than they did. When Democratic president Joe Biden took office in 2021, he set out to restore the economic system in place before 1981, protecting workers, boosting infrastructure investment, breaking up monopolies, and protecting consumers.
This is one of the things that infuriates me from the Republicans and Conservatives I interact with. Their undying faith that Reagan was the bringer of prosperity, that the rising tide lifts all ships.
Total bullshit. The rise of the New Right through now has ensured that most of that rising tide has gone into the pockets of the elite, one might even say "Epstein" class.
I recommend reading the RAND report that she references. It can be found here for free.
There has been a lot of ink spilled on the series of 11 interviews that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles granted, and a lot of insider dishing.
Since most people do not have a sub to Vanity Fair, and I do, I have saved the two parts as PDF's and will let you read them. All the dishing on the photos is totally legit.
How anyone thought this was a good idea, and even Ms. Wiles tried the tired trope of "taken out of context", which led the writer, Chris Whipple, to respond with "Uh, please, I have tapes. Anyhow, grab them while you can:
and
These are worth the read.
(Oh, and if you're wondering why I have a sub to VF, it was to read Molly Jong-Fast, and I will not be renewing as she has left VF)
That's all for now!
Hope you are all doing well, and I should be able to do some more writing with two full weeks off of work.
